


Frozen Assets

by melissima



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 22:37:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melissima/pseuds/melissima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete and Myka run into trouble retrieving an artifact from the Titanic, unaware their efforts are causing a mess of Titanic proportions back at the warehouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frozen Assets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [minkhollow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/gifts).



Artie held his headphones up to one ear, monitoring the French police radio channel. Claudia's hacking skills had given him eyes on their mission, and he scanned the surveillance footage for the restoration facility north of Paris where Pete and Myka had gone to retrieve an artifact. There weren't enough cameras to actually watch them switch the watch chain recently recovered from the Titanic for the fake, but Artie would be able to tell if security mobilized and warn his agents.

Claudia's feet tapped and shuffled out a rhythm from her terminal behind him, destroying his concentration for the third time in the last fifteen minutes. He turned and waved vigorously at her. When she saw him, she took out one ear bud, without missing a beat in the complicated shuffle-tap action of her feet.

"Whatcha got? Did the French science police catch 'em in the act? Are you going off to Paris to talk your way out of an international incident?"

"Claudia, take the autovac and go dust for me, please." Artie said, calling up a satellite picture of the Titanic's resting place in the Atlantic, to verify that all was calm and that there was no sign of artifact activity at the surface. "According to my notes, you left off in the Franklin section, at Blackeberg-12."

Claudia's face fell. "Slave and scullery maid, at your service," she muttered, carrying the autovac in one hand and a bucket of cleaning supplies in the other. "Can I at least take the Edison car?"

"All right, but don't pull anything cute. I've got enough balls in the air already with this operation of Pete and Myka's."

Artie knew it would be a bad idea to mention her fidgeting, but he wondered, listening to her complain under her breath, if he should tell her that he asked her to clean because he couldn't see dust and cobwebs clearly anymore, with his aging eyes and the dim lighting around the warehouse.

"We need to discuss her, Arthur." said Mrs. Frederick, having apparently materialized in the office behind him. "I have concerns."

"Discuss Claudia? Why? What sort of concerns?" Artie asked, deliberately keeping his back turned, his voice low and flavored with ennui. If he robbed Mrs. Frederick of the satisfaction of startling him, maybe she'd give up and use the door. Eventually.

"If it truly doesn't concern you to have an undereducated twenty-two-year-old genius entertaining herself in the warehouse, you haven't thought things through sufficiently."

"She's—she's taking a couple of classes online, and she's really good with research." Artie replied, calling up a camera feed that showed Claudia dusting away. "There are plenty of opportunities for her to learn a little responsibility and elbow grease." He gestured proudly at the screen.

Mrs. Frederick's impeccably neat eyebrow rose. "I am aware of the incident with the Volta coat. Frankly I'd feel better about that elbow grease if it was applied elsewhere. She clearly—"

Artie waved his hands dismissively. "We've all had accidents in the warehouse. Claudia's actually—" the Farnsworth's distinctive rattle-ring interrupted Artie, followed immediately by the ping of an artifact disturbance alarm. "Actually closer to..." Artie clicked on the warehouse alert, and zoomed the text so he could read which item was affected. "To whatever's going on down there to set this alarm off than either of us. Oh boy."

Artie opened the Farnsworth and then picked up a radio. "Claudia, go over to the Cottonwood section and check on the shelf labeled Fulton-8, artifact number 56878890."

"Roger." Claudia drawled. He activated an extra monitor and flipped from camera to camera on the warehouse surveillance system, following her across the warehouse to the location indicated by the alarm.

"Myka, did you get the uh, the watch chain?"

"We got it, but as soon as it hit the air it froze Pete!"

"What do you mean, it froze Pete?" Artie flicked his gaze away from the sick blur of the Farnsworth screen as Myka turned it toward Pete, and then leaned in to look closely at the tiny screen.

Pete was standing near the restoration tank, one hand curled over it as if he had just reached in and plucked something out of the water. Ice crystals covered his clothes and skin, and he was definitely not moving.

"Oh that is not—that is absolutely not good. Did you try—"

"He can't take the cold, Artie.

"Myka! Did you try the canister?"

"Yeah, I carried it to Pete and put it up to his arm so his hand would get dunked inside, but it didn't neutralize the artifact. It was kinda like the Poe thing, only this time the goo turned into ice. It was the second thing that froze, after Pete. Come on, Artie. You know how Pete is about cold—"

"Wait Myka, did—"

"What if he gets frostbite? What if his fingers and toes turn all black? What if they fall off, Artie? We've got to do something!"

"Okay okay, just—take a deep breath, Myka. Tell me what happened after you put Pete's hand in the canister."

"The neutralizer froze. Then those little ice crystals crawled over the lip of the canister and started freezing it. I put it down on the table over there, and the ice crystals are still crawling out of it. Most of the stuff on the table is frozen now. I don't know how long—"

"Artie!" Claudia bellowed over the radio. "The warehouse has sprung some kinda leak or something. Water's coming fast!"

Artie punched up the camera that could show him Cottonwood, and zoomed until he could see Claudia standing in front of the Fulton Shelf.

"Claudia, move over so I can see what we're dealing with, here."

Claudia stepped to one side, and Artie saw ripples rolling away from her feet. There was a puddle spreading around her from under the shelf. Artie zoomed even closer, and saw that an artifact on the lowest shelf was the source of the flood—a bracelet nestled into a cheap, flocked cardboard display box. A spring of water was bubbling from around the box and streaming through the open shelving to collect on the concrete floor.

"Myka it looks like we've got another bifurcated artifact. We'll have to coordinate neutralizing them both."

"Okay. I tried using a pencil cup to dunk the watch fob in water again, but it just froze the water, and now his hand has a big block of ice on it." Myka's brow furrowed.

"Listen to me. We are going to find a way to fix this, Myka. Pete is going to be fine. I'm going to get everything set on our end. In the mean time, just—keep your Farnsworth open and speak up if anything changes." He kept the Farnsworth connection open while he radioed Claudia and told her the plan. He watched her jog to the nearest neutralizer station and pull the hose down, juggling to get its pump-action nozzle braced under her arm without dropping the radio.

"Okay Myka? Claudia? We neutralize both artifacts on three. Are you ready?"

"Say when," Claudia said, her voice bouncing strangely loud off the surface of the water.

Myka propped her Farnsworth up so he could watch her walk across the large laboratory and pick up the frozen canister, then take it over to Pete, moving carefully to keep the ice crystals from landing on herself. "On your count," Myka said.

"Three, two, one, Go!"

Claudia pumped the nozzle, unleashing a purple stream at the bracelet and its velvety box where she had propped it.

"Not working!" Claudia complained.

"Myka?" Artie queried, peering at the Farnsworth's screen. "Any change?"

"Nothing. Just ice, here." Artie saw Myka wrench the canister away from Pete's frozen hand, neutralizer slush falling to the floor in clumps that she pranced to avoid touching.

"All right, all right. We've got—we need to figure out what we know, here. We know that both pieces of jewelry were recovered from the wreck of the Titanic. We know that one is manifesting by freezing, and the other by flood."

"Don't suppose you've got an ark floating around this place somewhere?" Claudia asked, clinging to the shelving unit as the water swelled over her sneakers, rising frighteningly fast. "Huck Finn's raft? Moses' basket?"

"Sorry, n—maybe." Artie said. "Hold that thought. I'm going back upstairs to see what I can dig up on these things."

"I can shut the water main off, Arthur. Hopefully that will stem the tide." said Mrs. Frederick.

"So if it's a pair of bifurcated artifacts, Artie, doesn't that mean we have to get them together in order to stop the manifesting?" Myka contemplated the possibilities. "Pete's not going to last the entire trans-Atlantic flight frozen. And even if he did survive it, the canister is still dripping ice crystals—they might freeze whole plane."

"I think that's the least of the concerns, Myka, really. The warehouse will be under water by the time the two of you can fly home."

"So what are we going to do? I mean, is there another way to calm a bifurcated artifact?"

"I don't, I dunno. Maybe."

"Maybe we should just destroy it, then," Myka proposed. "I found a hammer inside."

"No!" Artie yelled, hands flailing.

"Okay, okay! No hammer. Got it."

Artie subsided, eyes falling closed momentarily. "You do not want to know what happens if a bifurcated artifact gets separated that way. If we have to destroy them, we'll coordinate and destroy them at the same time. It's tricky to get right, so we won't go there unless we have to. If we all come up with ideas, one of them is bound to be helpful. Now, the watch chain was under water until today, right?

"Right. I tried putting it back under water, like I told you, and the water just froze."

"Interesting. Anybody have any thoughts?"

"I dunno, Artie. I'm kinda thinking it's a bad idea for all these artifacts to get dunked. Do you have a clue what water will do to them? Do we even know for sure that it is water I'm standing in?" Claudia worried.

"All right, all right! Myka? I'll call you back, okay?" Artie jammed the Farnsworth into a pocket and ran for the Cottonwood section.

By the time he reached Claudia, the rising flood waters reached her ankles. The artifacts on the lowest shelves would be wet soon. "All right, you're okay. Start moving stuff up, but be careful. Don't drop anything."

He sloshed over to the shelf and peered at the bracelet, a fat, burbling spring of water welling up from the center.

Claudia worked her way across Fulton shifting artifacts to a higher shelf and then splashed back to him, the water halfway to her knees already. She inspected the bracelet and its box and tilted her head, staring at it.

"What if it's an opposite thing, like now that the other artifact has hit air, this one needs to get wet, and that's why the water's coming from everywhere or whatever."

Artie tilted his head in turn, considering. "I think you should get out of the water before you try it."

"Right," Claudia said. "No interest in joining Pete in the Popsicle club." She climbed onto the newly-emptied shelving and held out her hand for the bracelet. "Don't you think you should get out too, though?"

"You have a point." Artie handed her the bracelet, and the stream of water came with it, shifting from burbling spring to a thick stream. Then he stepped onto the shelf. "Okay, go."

"You sure this thing will hold both of us?" Claudia teased, smirking.

"You're hilarious. Dunk the thing already! If this gets deep enough to reach the next shelf we are in big trouble. And do not drop it."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Claudia pulled a length of string from her pocket and tied it around the bracelet. "Here goes!" she leaned over to submerge the bracelet in the rising water, but nothing changed, except that the flood continued to rise inexorably.

Artie let out a gusty breath. "It was a promising idea, anyway. Put that thing away and get back to moving artifacts up. I'll keep you posted." He stepped down and handed her the box.

She put the bracelet and box on a higher shelf before stepping back into the flood. "I thought you were shutting off the water main."

"Mrs. Frederick?" Artie asked into the radio. He hoped she was still up there.

She responded immediately. "I turned the water off. Did you see any change at all?"

"No, it must be coming from the air, or something," he turned to head back to his office with a wave for Claudia. "Keep an eye on the bracelet. I'll go look into it. We still need a way to calm these things without bringing them together. See what kind of ideas you can come up with, but don't—"

Claudia piped up, "Well I could point the—"

Artie turned back to Claudia with an emphatic gesture. "As I was saying, don't do anything until come back. Okay?"

"Geez! alright! Cut back on the caffeine, grumpy. I'm not a crazed five-year-old."

He headed for his office, but speared her with a sharp look over his shoulder as he slogged up the aisle.

*

Claudia stared at the water for a long moment, realizing that her chucks might never recover from this. She made her way around the end of the shelving and moved the bottom-most artifacts from that aisle up, too. When she moved to into the next row, the water was much shallower. The artifacts hadn't come close to getting wet. "Weeeird."

"What can you tell me about these artifacts?" Mrs. Frederick asked over the radio.

Claudia smiled broadly and wiped her face and hands as best she could on her mostly-dry tee shirt before unhooking her radio from her belt. "I know they came from the Titanic, but if I can get to a terminal..."

She splashed over to a terminal near enough that she could see the bracelet and pulled up its database entry on the screen and began reading to Mrs. Frederick:

> "Titanic artifact #56878890 - Bracelet with heart-shaped padlock clasp, believed to have contributed to the survival of its owner, Josette Bayard (1902-1986) on April 15,1912. Second class passenger Mlle. Bayard was accompanied on the voyage by her brother Benedict, who secured her both a life vest and a seat on lifeboat 4 before the passengers had even been notified of the emergency. Mr. Bayard did not survive the sinking. A watch fob bearing the initials BAB was recently recovered, with a small key-shaped charm that is believed to match the bracelet."

"So if the artifacts are keyed to the siblings with the intent to protect one another from danger...Arthur, it seems the artifacts originated with a pair of siblings' desire to protect one another. If they are reacting to a perceived threat, we may not have a choice but to destroy them." Mrs. Frederick said.

"I need a better estimate of how long we can expect Pete to hold out." Artie replied, his keys clacking furiously.

"The bracelet's been here in the warehouse since it's owner passed away, almost a decade. Has there been any similar manifestation from these artifacts before now?"

Claudia opened a browser window, and searched for TITANIC SURVIVOR MEMOIR ACCOUNT BAYARD. There were only a few results, but she did find Josette Bayard's diary published on a Titanic memorial website.

> "I don't know how Ben knew what was happening before the crew did, but he had roused me from sleep and dressed me in every warm thing we had, reminding me to go silently as we crept along the darkened hallways toward the deck."
> 
> "I remember noticing something strange as he buckled on my life vest: ice crystals had completely encrusted his watch chain, and were dripping occasionally from it to land on the deck. I wanted to catch one, but he slapped my hand away."

She popped an obnoxiously blinky message up on Artie's main screen, with a link and a request for her tool belt. When that was done, she headed for the office, exclaiming into her radio, "Artie, I think I can stop the waterworks!"

"What have you found?" Mrs. Frederick asked.

"I think I know what's going on here. It _is_ an opposite thing. I can stop it but I need my tool belt. It's on my chair in the office." Claudia paused, and heard Artie talking to Myka via Farnsworth.

"Since we don't have time to bring them together," Artie said, "we'll have to figure out what it was about the artifacts' previous circumstances kept them from—"

"Arthur, excuse me."

Artie barely paused. "—from manifesting for the past ninety years—"

"Arthur, Claudia has—"

Claudia cringed as they talked over each other. She wondered if what Leena told her was true, about the last time Artie interrupted Mrs. Frederick.

"I'm sorry," Artie said, sounding chastened. Claudia stifled a giggle, imagining the glare that elicited an apology from him. "I beg your pardon?"

"I said Claudia has found something. You'll find details in a message she just sent," said Mrs. Frederick.

The radio went quiet, except for a few squeaks as Artie shifted in his chair. "Her tool belt?" Artie griped, "She wants her tool belt, when there is water creeping into the warehouse directly from the atmosphere?" Artie's chair squeaked again, and Claudia heard the radio change hands. "Besides, I told you to keep an eye on the bracelet."

"There's a link, it's associated with the original owner of the bracelet," Mrs. Frederick said. "You did say she was good at research, Arthur."

This time Claudia had to cover the radio with one hand and her mouth with the other. Artie smarty-pants got pwned!

*

The tool belt was easy enough to find on the chair at Claudia's favorite terminal. Artie headed out of his office, wondering if he could convince her to let him do this himself, or at least to tell him what she was planning before she did it.

She jogged up under the railing and called up to him. "Awesome, you found it!"

"Claudia, what are you going to do? You can't just go trying things randomly until—" Artie went over to the railing and peered down at her. She was soaked nearly to the waist, and there was a shallow pool of water spreading up the aisle toward her, even this far from the artifact.

She sighed forbearingly and held up her hands. "Just give it to me. What could you have to worry about that's in there, anyway? it's just wrenches, screwdrivers, gum...You know. Useful stuff."

Artie glared at her. "Get serious, Donovan. Unless you tell me what you are planning and more importantly why, I won't give it to you and I won't let you go back over there."

"Okay look. Josette Brayard's diary said that she saw the watch chain freeze before they hit the iceberg. She said she felt her brother's presence for years after the Titanic, but only when she was wearing the bracelet _and_ it was cold out. We can't get her brother's watch fob here in time, but if you gimme that and tell Myka to get her bucket of water ready, we can bring down the mercury and stop the insanity."

Mrs. Frederick joined them at the railing, as Artie started rummaging through the pockets in the tool belt. "What are you, what do you have in here that will—"

"No it's no big deal, everybody uses it. Remember that day when the sticky string clogged up..." Claudia trailed off, clearing her throat as Artie subtly shook his head, reminding her not to tell that particular story in front of Mrs. Frederick. "Myka's hair would have been a total loss if it wasn't for—"

"The snow globe? Why do you have the snow globe in your tool belt, Claudia? You've—We've had this conversation multiple times. All artifacts can be dangerous, and you are not an agent."

"Arthur, Agent Latimer has very little time," said Mrs. Frederick.

Chastened, Artie dropped the tool belt into Claudia's hands. "What's your plan, exactly?"

"I freeze the bracelet, and Myka dunks the watch chain at the same time. It's an opposites thing. I think it'll calm them."

Artie found himself nodding along. "Yeah, yeah, that's good, that could—okay, get over there fast, but wait for my count, okay? The timing needs to be right."

He watched her jog away again and went back inside to track her with the cameras. She plowed through the nearly waist-high flood, holding the belt overhead until she could hook it on the shelving and climb to reach the bracelet. She pulled open the tool belt's deepest pocket and took out the snow globe. "Ready!"

"Myka?" Artie asked.

"I'm ready," she said, holding a wastebasket under Pete's clenched fist.

"Three, two, one, go!" He watched his screens, helplessly far from either of them if something went wrong and hoping nothing did. Myka dunked Pete's hand, and Claudia shook the snow globe over the bracelet until ice crystals formed on the links and padlock-clasp.

"Artie it's... he's melting!" Myka said.

Then she turned the Farnsworth so he could see Pete rubbing his arms and stamping his feet, crowding close to peer at the Farnsworth's tiny screen. "What, have they got the air conditioning on in here?" Pete said, his teeth chattering. "It's freezing. I'm gonna get my coat. Do you want yours too, Myka?" His voice trailed off as he went, still chattering with cold. "Brr! How can you stand it in here?"

Artie zoomed the warehouse camera to catch a huge smile spreading across Claudia's face as the water bubbling from around the bracelet slowed and then stopped. The flood started to evaporate as quickly as it had come, wispy curls of mist rising from the water's surface.

"Aw, yeah. The red haired girl saves the day."

She splashed through the receding water toward the camera and fixed Artie with big, pleading eyes. "Please tell me you've got a doodad around here that'll dry these jeans?" she gestured at her sodden clothes. "We've got a lot of work to do, getting all those artifacts I had to shuffle back into their spots."

"We?" Artie scoffed. "_You_ can go find Cleopatra's fan, I think it's in Blackeberg. But _do not_ try it on your own. In fact, bring it here so I can supervise. Then you can get to work putting the shelves back in order. I will be helping Pete and Myka get on a plane with oh so much more than three ounces of liquids, and then I have to find room in the refrigerated vault and the seawater tank before they get back."

"While you're at it, you might wanna get a clue about which bifur-whatsit artifacts you've got laying around here, Art-man."

Artie turned and caught Mrs. Frederick's normally impassive face twitching slightly toward a smile. "Now that you mention it, that sounds like an excellent research project for you to work on, once you've finished straightening up the shelves."

Claudia grumbled at him a little, but he grinned as he put the radio back on his belt and watched her walk away. He knew she'd enjoy it once she got started. He looked up the number for the Parisian Air authority, and the name of a colleague in the French government in case he needed extra leverage.

"Well I'm satisfied," said Mrs. Frederick. "For now. See to it that she does well in her studies, and I'll make some room in the budget for a new asset."

"Make room?" Artie paused with his hand on the the telephone. "Make room where? Please, just...trust me, you do not want to take it from the travel budget, because there's been a crazy influx of—"

Artie turned back toward Mrs. Frederick and closed his mouth with an audible snap. He threw up his hands in disgust; there was no use talking to an empty warehouse.


End file.
